Education Commons^™

Examining Facebook As A Digitally Immersive Language Environment For French Language Learners, Shelly Wyatt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This quasi-experimental study examined the impact of interactions with native French language Facebook posts on beginning French language learners’ willingness to communicate (WTC) and their attitudes towards the target language and culture in a university setting. In addition, the degree of interaction, by participants, with the French language Facebook posts was recorded and analyzed. This study was conducted during the Spring 2013 semester at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. Participants in this study were recruited from two sections of FRE 1120, Elementary French Language and Civilization I. Native French language Facebook posts were “pushed” to participants’ personal …

Quasi-Experimental Study: The Effects Of Virtual Covert Audio Coaching On Teachers' Transfer Of Knowledge From Professional Development To Classroom Practice, Marilyn Jackson-Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A quasi-experimental multiple time series design was used to analyze and compare the impact of two types of instructional coaching, face-to-face and virtual covert audio provided with Bluetooth technology, on teacher transfer of knowledge learned in professional development into classroom practice. Teacher transfer across baseline, intervention, and maintenance phases was analyzed. The study was conducted at a public elementary school in a Florida suburban school district with approximately 750 students. Twelve teachers were randomly selected from teachers who volunteered to attend professional development. Six teachers (one from each grade level K-5) in the treatment group received virtual covert audio coaching. …

An Urban School District's Preparing New Principals Program: Completers' Perceptions Of Program Effectiveness Related To Florida Principal Leadership Standards Adopted In 2011, Kelly Pelletier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to measure the extent to which school leaders who completed the preparing new principals program in School District A perceived the program’s effectiveness in preparing them to demonstrate Florida’s principal leadership standards as adopted in November 2011. This study also identified the components of the preparing new principals program that influenced the professional practice of the program completers in their current leadership roles within School District A. This study was conducted at the request of the professional development services designee in School District A and is a companion study to research conducted by Eddie …

Capillarity: A Theory Of Mlearning And Its Application In Emerging Markets, David Rogers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The theory of capillarity is an organic metaphor invoked to explore the role of network communications as a vehicle for education in a healthy society. Capillarity is offered as a theory in two parts: a mechanism for distribution and a method for engagement. Capillarity seeks to build an architecture that reflects radical humanism's emphasis on access and inclusion as a vehicle for classical humanism's emphasis on the individual expansion of potential and consciousness. The technical instrument whereby this program of humanist education may be deployed is mLearning

Deconstructing Differences In Effectiveness Of Reading Teachers Of Ninth Grade Non-Proficient Readers In One Florida School District, Jason Wysong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was undertaken to identify specific instructional and professional differences between the most effective and least effective teachers of ninth grade students enrolled in intensive reading courses in one Florida school district. Teachers from eleven schools were invited to complete a survey that included categorical, Likert, and openended response items. Principals and assistant principals at these schools were also invited to complete a similar survey. Teacher respondents were then divided into three effectiveness groups based on the percentage of their students who met 2011-2012 FCAT performance targets established by Florida’s value-added learning growth model. Inferential statistics were used to …

Role Play And Social Stories: An Intervention For Increasing Verbal Initiations In Children With Autism, Andrea Dinon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The effect of a treatment package consisting of social stories and role play on the verbal initiation of one 4-year old girl with autism was examined. Using a multiple baseline across activities treatment design, the investigator measured the number of verbal initiations during 10-minute sessions while the participant engaged in one of three activities, board games, pretend play, or constructive play. Baseline data, baseline probes and treatment data were collect for the three activities. The results indicate that the treatment package was effective in increasing the participant’s verbal initiations across all three activities.

Perspectives On Ict Adoption In Ugandan Schools, Anthony G. Markon

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This report discusses steps for the integration and adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) in Uganda schools. Barriers of ICT adoption for teachers were determined through surveys at three schools in Eastern Uganda. Teachers identified lack of familiarity of ICT resources and lack of ICT skills as the two greatest barriers to ICT integration. Administrators and staffs were also interviewed to determine current resources. Through observations, interviews and collected data the report addresses two major ideas, promoting utilization of ICT resources and development of sustainable ICT programs. Promotion of utilization not only relies on overcoming the major barriers listed, …

The Effect Of Eastern Kentucky Coal Fires On Local Air Quality And Personal Health, Eric C. Abbott

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The purpose of this project was to investigate student learning in the areas of earth science and environmental responsibility using the subject of coal fires. Eastern Kentucky, where this study was performed, has several coal fires burning that affect the local air quality and may also affect the health of people living near them. This study was conducted during the regular education of 9th grade Earth Science classroom in Russell Independent Schools, located in Russell, Kentucky. Students conducted internet research, read current articles on the subject of coal fire emissions and effect on local ecology, and demonstrated what they learned …

Evaluation Of Sugar Maple Dieback In The Upper Great Lakes Region And Development Of A Forest Health Youth Education Program, Tara L. Bal

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Acer saccharum Marsh., is one of the most valuable trees in the northern hardwood forests. Severe dieback was recently reported by area foresters in the western Upper Great Lakes Region. Sugar Maple has had a history of dieback over the last 100 years throughout its range and different variables have been identified as being the predisposing and inciting factors in different regions at different times. Some of the most common factors attributed to previous maple dieback episodes were insect defoliation outbreaks, inadequate precipitation, poor soils, atmospheric deposition, fungal pathogens, poor management, or a combination of these. The current sugar maple …

The Planned And The Emergent: An Alternative Model Of Learning And Literacy, Lori S. Rogers

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Within academic institutions, writing centers are uniquely situated, socially rich sites for exploring learning and literacy. I examine the work of the Michigan Tech Writing Center's UN 1002 World Cultures study teams primarily because student participants and Writing Center coaches are actively engaged in structuring their own learning and meaning-making processes. My research reveals that learning is closely linked to identity formation and leading the teams is an important component of the coaches' educational experiences. I argue that supporting this type of learning requires an expanded understanding of literacy and significant changes to how learning environments are conceptualized and developed. …

Graduate Studies Fact Book

Graduate Studies Fact Books (2006-2017)

No abstract provided.

There Can Be No End Save Learning: Using Seminal U.S. Documents To Teach Fundamental Reading Skills, Michael Handy

The Utah English Journal

The skill-based Common Core, as well as its Utah adaptation, raises the level of rigor required of students. The core focuses on skills that apply to literature and nonfiction of all kinds. A few standards name specific authors (Shakespeare’s name appears several times, for example), but the standards in general impose no prescribed list of works on teachers.

Yet Standard 9 of the Reading Standards for Informational Text curiously lists not only authors worthy of study, but specific works: “Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (e.g., Washington’s Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, King’s …

Discussion Boards: Boring No More!, Deborah S. Adelman, Debbie Conner

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Creating discussion boards (DBs) that capture student imaginations and contain meaningful interactions can be a difficult process. Traditional DBs use a question-and-answer format that often is boring for both the student and instructor. The authors present creative approaches to DBs that result in lively debates and student-to-student and student-to-faculty interactions, including role playing, blogging, wikis, and the use of voice.

Increasing Student Engagement, Decreasing Teacher Workload: Student Self-Assessment As A Writing Approach, David B. Lee

The Utah English Journal

I was recently introduced to a first-year English teacher and was asked what advice I would give this teacher about to embark on the journey of teaching. I half-jokingly said, “Be careful: Grading papers can take over your life.” We all kind of chuckled, but I knew that this new teacher was soon to find out that this statement is very real; every time I thumb through a mound of ungraded essays sitting on my desk, I am reminded of this reality.

The Common Core Standards (2010) suggest that students participate in several short and long-term writing projects. I agree, …

Engaging The Echoboomers: Creative Strategies For Teaching Analysis And Synthesis, Sirpa Grierson, Heather Wing

The Utah English Journal

The new Utah State Core Curriculum standards require English language arts teachers to better prepare students for career and college readiness using the skills of close reading complex texts (Appendix A, 3) and argument writing (W1, 51). Both of these processes involve the use of synthesis and analysis for problem solving (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, 2011). Yet if we want students to read deeply and learn to write persuasively, we must offer authentic instructional situations that allow our students to access new understandings along with these foundational skills of reading and writing. Helping students become …

Close Encounters Of The Best Kind, Shannon Butler

The Utah English Journal

Usually I slip into a student teacher’s class and pull my forms of checklist behaviors from my bag unnoticed. If I am introduced, students give an indifferent glance, then turn their attention back where it belongs. But this morning was different.

The Power Of Using Standards-Based Grading To Assess Student Writing, Whitney Weaver, Angela Hartley

The Utah English Journal

Each year, like many language arts teachers across the state of Utah, we set out to effectively teach our students how to be good writers. Each time we discover exciting and engaging ways to teach writing in our classrooms. However, we have also found that even the best writing practices fall short in the absence of effective writing assessment. Standards-based grading has been, for us, the most successful tool for such assessments.

Standards-based grading is when a teacher creates specific and measurable learning goals to guide the curriculum, conducts frequent formative assessments of the students’ proficiency on these goals, and …

Biodiversity Heritage Library, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Deanna Marcum

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), created in 2006, is the result of a collaboration of ten natural history museum and botanical garden libraries seeking to digitize core taxonomic literature and to make it free and openly available throughout the world. Today, the BHL includes fifteen member institutions whose efforts have shaped a collection of over 60,000 titles. It is supported through a combination of membership dues, in-kind support from member institutions, contributions from the user community, and direct support from the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and it reaches tens of thousands of users each year. While managing the complex partnership has …

Academic Rigor For All: A Review Of Literature, Gabriel Reich, Volkan Sevim, Amanda Turner

MERC Publications

In this literature review, we will attempt to address the issue of academic rigor in several ways. First, we will review federal and Virginia policy documents that discuss academic rigor, and the research reports that influenced these documents. We will then attempt to articulate a clear definition of academic rigor that applies across academic contexts. This definition draws on the work of educational psychologists, sociologists, and scholars of teaching and learning. Finally we will review the research literature on rigorous classroom practice in two disciplines, history and mathematics.

Persuasive Essay, Katie Mason

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

Unit is designed to teach students to write a strong persuasive essay based on the STAAR persuasive essay rubric. Unit focuses on teaching students to develop a strong thesis, developed reasoning, and address opposing views or counterarguments.

Cultural Forum: Classical Societies And Western Dominance [10th Grade], Ellie Chernosky

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

The goal of this unit is for students to understand what a “classical culture” is and why history remembers the West. Students will begin by learning about Greece and Rome, focusing on the modern legacies of these two classical civilizations. They will begin by distinguishing between early river valley civilizations and classical civilizations and analyzing the changes and continuities. Students will compare political systems, and then, they will analyze the influence of Greek democracy on America’s political system. Students will review the main legacies of Rome, and learn about the rise and fall of Rome by completing a model. After …

Understanding Geometry As An Axiomatic System, Danielle Kendrick

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

After completing the Algebra I review and introducing several computational aspects of geometry including distance formula, midpoint formula, etc., we will introduce the idea of geometry as an axiomatic system. In this unit, we will decide what role rules play in governing behavior. Students will define and identify the four components of an axiomatic system; defined terms, undefined terms, axioms/postulates, and theorems. They will explore various axiomatic systems and decide how these systems dictate how appropriate behavior looks. We will explore Euclidean Geometry abstractly considering it at its most basic form, a set of rules that determine how geometric objects …

Picking The College For You [7th-8th Grade], Salena Gonzales

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

The goal of this unit is to combine several of the AVID curriculum essentials and provide more experiences for students to practice the AVID strategies for success. The curriculum blends College and Career planning with the “7 Habits of Highly Effective Students” in a research project. In order to conduct the research, students use AVID strategies for success such as planning and organization skills, reading and annotating strategies, Costa’s questions, note taking and essay writing. Essentially, students should discover that the ideal way to attain success is by setting a goal, creating a plan, and working hard to accomplish that …

Colonial America & Our Founding Documents, John Laymon Iii

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This unit was designed to cover the new STAAR TEKS for U.S History including the “Celebrate Freedom Week” TEKS and the Introductory TEKS for U.S History. By covering these TEKS at the start of the year students can get a refresh from 8th grade History, if they still remember 8th grade U.S History. By front loading these TEKS early on instead of reviewing these TEKS before STAAR testing, students will have more time to review Colonial America, the American Revolution, our founding documents. This unit will provide a foundation for the rest of the year allowing U.S History to be …

Modeling The World, Jeremy Martin

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

Pre-Requisites for the Unit: Students should have studied exponential and polynomial functions and linear regression before starting this unit.

Context: This unit is envisioned as an end of course unit for Pre-Calculus. The unit is designed specifically to incorporate elements of Calculus and Statistics for students interested in taking either AP course.

Unit Goals: Students should come out of this unit with the ability to perform polynomial and exponential regression and interpret the residuals and coefficient of determination in context of the model’s goodness of fit. Students will gain proficiency in using computers and calculators to display data and create …

Romeo And Juliet Is About You: Finding The Self In Drama, Elizabeth Muire

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

“Romeo and Juliet is About You” is a unit written for the opening work of the spring semester of freshman English, shortly before the STAAR exam. The unit focuses on teaching students to relate to difficult texts and thereby make them more accessible, as well as exploring relationships and their effect on values, choices, and lives. The students will write expository and literary essays, as well as hold Socratic seminars and make use of a number of discussion protocols, to get comfortable with the big ideas of Romeo and Juliet, and the conventions of drama. The culminating project of the …

Pourquoi Stories, Dan Mallette

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This unit is based on Pourquoi Stories, which are stories of origin or stories that tell how or why something came to be. These stories are a form of the literary narrative. This unit is meant for students to explore the structure of stories and also what stories show the reader about different cultures. Specifically, this unit addresses the introductory hook, plot diagramming, the four basic conflicts in narrative and character development. This unit highlights these literary ideas by embracing the following multiple intelligences: spatial, linguistic, logical/mathematical, kinesthetic and naturalistic.

Energy Transformations In The Real World, Stephanie Sanders, Dayna Fogle

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This energy unit is intended as part three of a three part series where students use launchers to explore how scientists combine theory and measured data to build and use predictive models. The launchers will be used during projectiles, forces, and work/energy and students will measure and use data adjusted theoretical models to endeavor to complete two hands-on performance tasks. Historically, our students have struggled to understand why “physics breaks” in the lab, and we intend to use these launchers throughout our Newtonian mechanics units to open an ongoing dialogue about how modeling is used to bridge the gap between …

Ap Language Summer Reading Unit For Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, Amy R. Thomson

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This is an approximately four week unit intended for junior AP Language students with daily forty five minute class periods. It is based on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which is paired with non-fiction pieces “Shooting an Elephant,” “On Morality,” “Live Free and Starve,” and “The Ways We Lie,” as well as student chosen current events articles in keeping with the goals of The College Board’s AP English Language and Composition course. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was part of a summer reading assignment, so the students should have read it previously during the summer and completed assignments …

Shaping Community - Teamwork And Critical Thinking, Alexander Serna-Wallender

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

By the end of this unit students should be able to effectively work with any number of people as members of a team. Students will be able to recognize the consequences of their own actions and how those affect a larger group. Additionally, students will be able to develop the skills need to navigate conflict that arises in group settings. Along with that, students will develop their critical thinking skills to effective engage in problem solving. All of this is leading up to students being able to, as a group, identify an issue in their community and work towards addressing …